Australia's Earliest European Graves

Abstract

This paper will detail where human remains of people can (or already have) been found from the grounding and mutiny of the Dutch East India (VOC) ship Batavia in 1629 and the lesser-known wrecking of the Zeewijk in 1727 on the reefs of the Houtman Abrolhos, a cluster of island groups off the coast of Western Australia. These are Australia’s earliest known European burials.

Unlike the Zuijtdorp (Zuytdorp) lost on the mainland opposite the Abrolhos in 1712 with all hands, in the Batavia and Zeewijk instances survivors eventually reached the VOC headquarters in Batavia (modern day Jakarta, Indonesia). Journals, letters and reports produced by these survivors indicate what happened to those 200 who did not survive in the case of the Batavia and the 49 people in the Zeewijk instance.A process of elimination then assists in narrowing down possible identities for whose remains have been found and may be found in the future adding essential information of value to the historical record, archaeological excavations and osteological research into the human remains that have been found over the years. This work is also relevant to recent studies in examining the behaviour of shipwreck castaways, thereby having ramifications reaching beyond just the VOC and its wrecks in Australian waters. Ultimately, in helping pair skeletal remains with names and identities, this research may help the victims receive some form of personal recognition centuries after their deaths.